As soon as I decided to buy this book, I knew it would be my next review. After receiving the book, I almost changed my mind, because I wasn't happy with my purchase. Then I decided that it's the duty of a reviewer to state the bad as well as the good, so I decided to go ahead with the review. I'm going to do this review in two sections, which makes it a bit longer than my usual review. The first will be a review of the technique, the second a review of the book.
This is a new technique, and of course there's always a lot of excitement generated when someone introduces something unique. There have been rave reviews about this technique on some of the bead-related mailing lists that I read, and it is definitely a unique technique.
The basket weave is a variation of netting in a double layer configuration. It really does look like a woven basket when completed, and you can get some interesting effects by changing bead sizes or using multiple colors.
I found this technique to be truly challenging. It requires strong tension to work right. In the past, when an author would say a project needed tight tension, I've had no problems with it, because I'm a "tension queen". I have to consciously think about it in order to relax my stitches. With this technique, however, I found that you really do have to maintain tension all the time, or the stitches loosen up and you'll end up with a mess. (It may be possible to do each row and then go back through the row a second time to tighten it up. I've done that with other netting projects, but haven't tried that yet with this technique.) I recommend using short lengths of thread, because the constant tension will weaken the thread to breaking point if you use longer lengths.
When completed, the finished piece is incredibly stiff, even more so than the peyote baskets that I've made. Once I got the hang of the technique, it wasn't hard to do, other than maintaining tension, although it is time consuming and uses a lot of beads. (A 4 x 6 inch basket in size 11/0s uses about 80 grams of beads.) Like most netting-based techniques, the basket weave is fairly forgiving of irregular beads. In fact, I'd say that Czech beads make this technique look even more interesting, because the technique has a lot of texture to it, and irregular beads would give even more texture.
The final word is if you feel up to a challenge, and like making beaded baskets, you'll probably enjoy this technique.
While the technique was truly interesting, I was quite disappointed with the book itself. The front and back covers look quite nice laminated with color pictures of the baskets, but I found the interior of the book unprofessional. The pages look like poor quality photocopies with uneven black lines running across the top of the pages, and the paper is standard weight, not the thicker weight that I prefer to see in a book. (Thicker paper ensures that the other side doesn't show through the page.) In addition, a fairly significant portion of each page is taken up with a copyright statement. I know that bead authors are concerned about their work being stolen, but having a 5-line statement on every other page is taking up space that could be used more effectively, in my opinion.
On her website, Jeanette says that this book is 25 pages, but the book that I received has only 14 pages. Her website also says that the book has 19 unique patterns, but the book I got only has 6. When I emailed her to ask about this, she said that her distributor suggested she add in more patterns, so she added in another 11 pages on the second printing. She offered to mail me the additional pages, which does show a good sense of customer service.
As far as the instructions are concerned, I would consider these adequate instructions for class handouts where the teacher is demonstrating the technique. For a book, there are far too few illustrations, and the written text is somewhat sparse. It took me three tries to figure out how to do the basic technique from these instructions. The main technique is described with only 7 illustrations for the 19 steps shown in the written text, and the next two patterns in the book have no illustrations at all, with the final patterns having only illustrations for the embellishments. To be fair, I was able to eventually figure out the technique from the written text, but I think many less experienced beaders would have difficulty.
Something I would have found very useful in this book would be instructions
on increasing and decreasing within a piece to vary the shape of the basket.
This is not covered in the book, except for the patterns that change bead sizes.
For a new technique, I consider increasing and decreasing to be a necessary
"basic" that should be covered. While there are patterns in the book
that show baskets with variations in diameter, the increases and decreases are
done by changing the size of the beads. I would have been happier to also see
methods for increasing and decreasing while staying with one size of bead.
I also think that part of my disappointment with this book was due to the price.
The standard retail on this book is $20. Even with the added pages, this seemed
too much to pay for the quality of the book that I received. If I was browsing
through this book in a bead store and saw a $20 price tag, I would never have
bought it.
In conclusion, I would recommend that if you see this book at half-price, you
enjoy making beaded baskets, and you enjoy a challenge, then it would be a worthwhile
purchase.
|
|
|
| © 2002 The Heart of Illinois Bead Society | Email site problems to the webmaster |